Deputy Lawhorn Mentioned in Complaint Alleging Illegal Surveillance of Local Liberty Group

Sheriff Knezovich flames Spokane Valley Councilman

By RTC – EXCLUSIVE – The Liberty Command Center

Sheriff Knezovich flamed City Councilman Ed Pace over an incident at Shari’s on Sullivan in the Valley. The Spokane County Constitutional Republicans hold their monthly meeting at this Shari’s. The Sheriff and members of the Constitutional Republicans, the Northwest Grassroots, and the Tea Party Patriots have been at odds since the Sheriff’s recent presentation on radical extremist groups. These conservative groups believe the Sheriff unfairly linked them with real radical rightwing extremist groups.

During a meeting in July of this year, two sheriff’s deputies were observed in Shari’s parking lot. Some attending the meeting were concerned that the deputies were noting license plate numbers and monitoring the meeting.

Councilman Pace along with several other Valley Councilmen attend these monthly meetings. Pace wrote an inquiry to the Assistant Valley City Manager Mark Calhoun. In turn, Calhoun forwarded the inquiry to Valley PD Chief Rick Van Leuven. Chief Van Leuven had Lt. Matt Lyons research this inquiry. Lt. Lyons replied back the deputies were in the area for a valid reason and were not surveilling the meeting. Chief Van Leuven then replied back appropriately with their findings.

Commentary

Sheriff Knezovich flamed Councilman Pace in this email. The Sheriff should have been more circumspect in his email to Councilman Pace. In as much as the Valley City Council ultimately is the Sheriff’s boss with regard to the City of Spokane Valley’s law enforcement contract with the Spokane Co Sheriff’s Office. The responses by Chief Van Leuven and Lt. Lyons were respectful and appropriate. Coincidentally, one of the deputies involved is the same one who allegedly “harassed” a pro-life supporter in front of the Valley Planned Parenthood Clinic:

A source supplied RTC with the following email chain [Slightly redacted to remove email addresses by RTC]:
From: “Knezovich, Ozzie” <OKnezovich@spokanesheriff.org<mailto:OKnezovich@spokanesheriff.org>>
> Date: July 23, 2015 at 7:54:02 PM PDT
> To: Ed Pace
> Subject: Re: Citizen Input Regarding Police Presence at Shari’s on Thursday 7/9/15
>
> Thank you councilman. I look forward to Mr. Keith’s response and any witness information.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 23, 2015, at 6:21 PM, Ed Pace <epace@spokanevalley.org<mailto:epace@spokanevalley.org>> wrote:
>
> Hello Ozzie,
>
> Thank you very much for your and Lt. Lyon’s thorough response to the citizen input I had passed along to our City staff regarding the July 9th meeting of the Constitutional Republicans of Spokane County, where a number of members said they observed two Spokane Valley police vehicles in Shari’s restaurant parking lot.
>
> The perceptions and concerns I relayed in my email were from meeting attendees, not the president of the organization.
>
> I discussed the key points of your response with Scott Keith, president of Spokane County Constitutional Republicans, stressing that any further questions or concerns from organization members should be made directly to you and/or the City staff.
>
> Thanks again for your attention to this matter.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Ed Pace, Councilmember
> City of Spokane Valley
>
>
> On Jul 23, 2015, at 1:49 PM, Knezovich, Ozzie <OKnezovich@spokanesheriff.org<mailto:OKnezovich@spokanesheriff.org><mailto:OKnezovich@spokanesheriff.org>> wrote:
>
> Mr. Pace,
>
> Below you will find Lt. Lyons’ findings concerning the outrageous claims made about the two deputies that serve the community of the City of Spokane Valley. I am surprised that such outlandish claims were made by your group. To claim that the deputies were there for 45 minutes and that they were taking photos of vehicle license plates and the occupants of the room rises to a level of paranoia that should be shocking but sadly isn’t. As noted we have no cameras in our vehicles nor body cameras, I wish we did because they would have shown just how ludicrous the below claim is.
>
> Since you were there did you see the type of activity described from the deputies?
> Knowing your group and their affinity for recording things via camera or smart phone do you or they have video of the deputies actions?
> It should be noted that it was members of your group that recorded and later produced the video of the deputies performing a public outreach function at the Walmart last December. This is the reason I ask if there is any video of these claims.
>
> For the record, it is against state and federal law to perform surveillance of political groups unless there is a clear and proven link to criminal activity. The Spokane County Sheriff’ s Office abides by the state and federal laws concerning these activities. It may surprise you but our agency is actually rewriting a class concerning these types of laws for the University of Louisville, and will soon start instructing this class nationally.
>
> The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is a professional organization and has a firmly rooted mandate to protect the Constitutional rights of our citizens. The activity your group claims is not only illegal but against the very principles of our values and the Constitution of the United States. I find these claims totally political in nature and as noted below false. Perhaps you should have attended the town hall meeting as Mayor Grafos did and you would have learned my stance on these issues. However, it has come to my attention via social media and personal emails that your group feels that I called all “constitutionalist” racists and Nazis during the presentation. I’m sure Mayor Grafos can counter that claim and enlighten you concerning the facts. It is a sad day when groups begin using and disparaging our law enforcement agencies to further their political agendas, which from the fact that members of your group created the video of the deputy at Walmart last December and are responsible for this claim, appears to be the smearing of the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and myself personally.
>
> As noted above please send me any information you have concerning this incident, since a full investigation will be conducted into this matter. Also please provide me with a list of witnesses that we should be interviewing to determine if our deputies did violate the Constitution of the United States, federal and state law and the policies and procedures of the Sheriff’s Office. These are serious allegations that if true will result in the termination of the offending deputies. I will also be contacting the FBI and request that they participated in this investigation due to the seriousness of the allegations.
>
>
> Ozzie Knezovich
> Spokane County Sheriff
> From: “Lyons, Matt”
> Date: July 16, 2015, 13:04:30 PDT
> To: “VanLeuven, Rick”
> Subject: RE: Citizen Input Regarding Police Presence at Shari’s on Thursday 7/9/15
> Rick,
> On July 9 at 1908 hours two deputies (Lawhorn: B506 and Petersen:B505) were dispatched to a DV at Moore and Valleyway (about 1100 feet from Shari’s). One was driving a marked SUV Interceptor and the other a Crown Vic Interceptor. They arrived at the call at 1912 hours and quickly determined that there was no crime as the incident involved legal parental discipline. They cleared at 1920 hours and stopped in the Shari’s parking lot to discuss the call. No other SCSO/SVPD units were present. Fourteen minutes later they were dispatched (along with B504 and P780) to a drunk/disorderly at Walmart (. . . E. Broadway) and both arrived at Walmart along with B504 at 1935 hours. P780 arrived at 1939 hours.
>
> As you know, there are no vehicle mounted cameras in service within the SCSO/SVPD fleet, nor is anyone wearing any sort of camera.
>
> CAD verifies that Lawhorn and Peterson were in the Shari’s parking lot for no more than 14 minutes (1920 hours to 1934 hours). Peterson said that he got out of his vehicle briefly to retrieve something from the back. Neither walked around the parking lot, nor did they contact anyone other than each other. I checked CAD to see if anyone else could have been there. During the time period in question everyone was either tied up on a call or in an area where they could not have gotten from their previous call to Shari’s and then made it to the next call that shows on their unit histories.
>
> Let me know if you need anything further.
>
> Lt. Matt Lyons
> Spokane Valley Police Precinct Commander
> Explosives Disposal Unit Commander •
>
> From: VanLeuven, Rick
> Sent: Monday, July 13, 2015 4:14 PM
> To: Lyons, Matt
> Subject: Fwd: Citizen Input Regarding Police Presence at Shari’s on Thursday 7/9/15
>
> Hi Matt, I am sure there is a logical reason our two SV cars were there, if you can please determine. Since we are lacking the electronic surveillance capability this just doesn’t make sense.
> Rick
>
>
> ——– Original Message ——–
> Subject: FW: Citizen Input Regarding Police Presence at Shari’s on Thursday 7/9/15
> From: Mark Calhoun
> To: “VanLeuven, Rick”
> Rick,
> Read the e-mail from Council Member Ed Pace below for a bit more detail but to summarize, on Thursday, 7/9/15 at approximately 7pm the Spokane County Constitutional Republican group was holding a meeting at Shari’s on Sullivan Road. During the meeting 2 police vehicles parked in the Shari’s lot for about 45 minutes and some members of the group are concerned they are being monitored by the City Police in light of some of Sheriff Knezovich’s comments at his June 29 presentation at CV High School. When you get a chance would you give me a call so we can discuss?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Mark Calhoun, Deputy City Manager
> City of Spokane Valley
> 11707 E. Sprague, Suite 106
> Spokane Valley, WA 99206
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Ed Pace
> Sent: Monday, July 13, 2015 3:41 PM
> To: Mark Calhoun
> Cc: Cary Driskell; Rick Van Leuven
> Subject: Citizen Input Regarding Police Presence at Shari’s on Thursday 7/9/15
>
> Hello Mark,
>
> As I mentioned this morning, I was at a meeting of the Spokane County Constitutional Republicans on Thursday 7/9/15. The main agenda item was a discussion on the recent “town hall” meeting held by the Republicans of Spokane County featuring our County Sheriff.
>
> During our Thursday meeting several participants noticed, through the meeting room window, two SV police vehicles in the parking lot. This caused quite a bit of “buzz” around the room with people wondering if, because of the topic of our meeting, we were being “monitored.”
>
> Here is an excerpt from an email sent later by one of the meeting participants:
>
> “Regarding the two police cars parked in the southeast corner of Shari’s parking lot during our meeting – My son in law was sitting next to me and he was watching out the window from when they drove up. The car came first and parked and then the SUV showed up. A deputy got out of one of the vehicles and walked to the west side of the parking area, then proceeded to walk north to the sidewalk next to the Shari’s building. He stopped and faced each vehicle and then walked to the next. My guess is that he had a body camera and was getting all of the license plates of the vehicles in the parking lot. A lady got out of one of the cars parked against the sidewalk and the deputy had a conversation with her. I don’t know if it was anyone in our meeting. I would guess that they had dash cams on the patrol vehicle and that they were able to zoom in enough to capture the folks in the room”
>
> This email is typical of the perceptions I heard directly from people. It would be great to know why those officers were really there and what they were doing. Thanks!
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Ed Pace
>
> Sent from my iPad